Chapter Twenty-Five
Aidan opened his eyes, taking in the sight of his gray ceiling. He didn't remember falling asleep. Memories muddled and merged, leaving him lost.
He lifted his head and found that Carys left him a bowl of carrot soup. When first tasting one of the remarkable Curselands grown carrots, he tried explaining the soup recipe to her. He half-remembered it since he abandoned cooking when he began his knightly training.
She had blinked at that information. "Why? Don't knights need to eat?"
The simple question threw him, and he hastened to explain etiquette. She grew more flummoxed at his flustered attempt.
Claudia interruption his explanation by laughing. "Royals consider themselves too grand to stop to anything as common as cooking. And, even if the Starlands adopted the pretense of enlightenment, they still force men and women into separate roles."
Outraged, Aidan defended his homeland, only stopping when lightheadedness overpowered him. Not because he couldn't refute Claudia's assertions.
Since the conversation went off path, it surprised him that Carys remembered the recipe. He took a few sips of the lukewarm soup, allowing the sweet flavor to caress his tongue. But something more remarkable than carrot soup diverted his attention.
Carys' door was open.
She always kept their adjoining door locked. His curiosity sailed at the sight, but his body remained anchored. He recalled his brother's tale of the king who murdered his wives and locked the corpses away. His new wife's curiosity about the room almost resulted in her death.
Fortunately, her brothers arrived in time.
An uneasy laugh escaped Aidan. He couldn't expect his brother to show up. His curiosity competed with fear before he accepted Carys wouldn't kill him.
She needed him.
He crept to the ajar door and pushed it further open. It groaned, but no angry reaction followed. Carys might be away, but that wasn't likely. Not as long as the curse kept them tied together. Once he opened it wide enough, he slipped inside and blinked.
It was nothing like he expected.
He believed Carys' room would be full of spiderwebs and dusty tomes.
But her room wouldn't look out of place in the Starlands.
Messy clothing overflowed from an empty trunk.
A silver-lined full-length mirror adorned the wall with a vanity beside it.
Tapestries concealed the gray walls, depicting scenes of stars, seas, rainbows, and a unicorn.
One particular tapestry caught Aidan's eye.
The Valiant Prince. A popular tale for maidens, many owned tapestries of the impossibly attractive champion.
Even Bella liked him. During her visit, they attended a production portraying one of his ridiculous tales.
Since no actor could measure up to the unrealistic beauty, a woman played the part.
Aidan couldn't fathom the appeal of the pure hero for Bella, much less for Carys.
The bookcase crammed with tomes and a desk covered in maps seemed more like Carys. The maps depicted the Curselands, full of gruesome names and skull markers, as well as a place circled called Cinder Mountain.
A rocking chair full of dolls sat in the corner. Aidan wasn't sure if they were simple dolls or more like Claudia's poppets. Mystical supplies covered one final table. Candles, precious herbs, daggers, feathers, shells and strange mixtures.
But shock rippled through him when he spotted clavichord in the corner. He couldn't recall hearing music coming from her room.
A few moments ago, he would have wagered Carys didn't even like music.
More pleasant surprise struck him at the sight of a chessboard. Since she showed no enjoyment for games, or anything, he assumed it was an enchanted object.
The finest item, a large, canopied bed with red velvet curtains, reminded him that Carys might never have left her bedchamber. He deciding it was in his best interest to abscond and backed toward his room.
Before he got far, a black candle spontaneously ignited.
He jumped, knocking into the rocking chair full of dolls.
They tumbled down, one falling on his foot.
The little stuffed doll twitched, a rag hand brushing against his shin.
He rushed to the door, only to crash into the chessboard.
Pieces rained upon the floor with an ominous clatter.
He cringed as the bed's curtains began swinging. Carys slipped through the ruby drapes, her hair even more of a blonde thicket. She slid off the bed, slowly making her way to him. Her face showed no anger, but obvious emotions were never her hallmark.
She sighed at the sight of the burning black candle. "Gil vowed this candle would alert me if someone attempted to invade my room. Evidently it only works after the trespasser is already inside."
He swallowed. "I... I..."
She shrugged. Discomfort stirred within Aidan.
She had tended him at his most vulnerable, but he had never seen her in such an informal, intimate way.
Clad in a sleeveless, almost diaphanous tunic that stopped above her knees.
Her sleepy hair and alluring attire shattered his image of a wild witch, ready to strike down anything in her path.
No ladies in the Starlands dressed in such a way.
The slight swaying of the tunic around her thighs disturbed Aidan. He looked away from her bare skin, endeavoring to ignore the heat flowing through him. "I apologize. Your door was open. I shouldn't... I shouldn't have come inside."
"You shouldn't have," Carys agreed in her normal monotone.
He focused on her dirty feet, the only part that resembled ordinary Carys. "I'm sorry, the candle lit all of a sudden—"
"Aye. It was meant to alert me of someone trying to enter, not trying to leave." She snorted. "Shoddy trick candles."
He raised his head as she picked up her dolls, flinging them on her rocking chair. His heart jumped, almost positive one of the cloth limbs twitched.
"Can you put the pieces back on the chessboard?" Carys asked, cradling a doll with red stains serving as eyes and a black X in place of a mouth.
Aidan chilled as the rag doll tilted its head. His hands shook as he hurriedly scooped up the pieces and dumped them on the board. He intended to rearrange them, but they moved of their own accord, resuming the positions of the previous game.
"I didn't know you played chess," he said, not wanting to think about what a cursed chess set could do.
"My brother's friend, Curse Mage Bradon, plays." She still held the frightful doll down, and it kept turning its face in Aidan's direction. "He gave me the set for my last birthday."
"How do you even know when it's your birthday down here?" he asked, attempting to distract himself from the damn doll.
It didn't work. Muffled laughter, as if someone was being smothered by a blanket while laughing, rang out.
Carys paid no mind to the noise or his rudeness.
She rummaged around the table of mystical supplies, picking up a small, round object that was no bigger than her hand.
She offered it to Aidan. His fingers brushed against engravings as he examined it.
It had the appearance of the compass, but the needle pointed west instead of north.
"That's the wheel of the year." She pointed at the markings around it, her finger brushing Aidan's hand.
"I was born four weeks before the Day of Spirits.
As you see, from the direction of the needle, we're a fortnight past Harvest Dawn.
I used to wonder why it came before the Day of Spirits.
I didn't know there were other things to harvest aside from spirits. "
He barely heard the rest, freezing at the words 'Harvest Dawn'. "My birthday was five days after Harvest Dawn. I am eighteen... I didn't even know."
"Oh..." She clutched her doll, seeming to struggle for something to say. "I didn't know that was your birthday. I would have informed you of the date, but no one pays much mind to time down here. Bradon is the only one who is a stickler for dates and time."
She was offering him her version of comfort, but he still felt as if punched by a fist of ice. "I see..."
"But I... I understand..." She stared down at her feet. "I missed my twelfth birthday and didn't find out until I was close to thirteen. That was when Meical remembered. I was twelve for almost a whole year and didn't know."
He flinched. That seemed worse than missing his birthday by a few days.
"Would you like a gift?" She shifted, shoulders stiffening as she offered rare compassion.
"Despite owning a wheel of the year, Meical ofttimes forgets my birthday.
But, even if it's much later, he'll remember and give me a gift.
It's peculiar how a gift for such an insignificant occasion can lift the spirits. "
Sadness washed over him. "I don't want..."
His words trailed off as cloth feet skittered on the floor. Something resembling mischief passed over Carys' face. "Do you want a doll?"
"No!" he exclaimed, just as the red-eyed doll tipped its head.
A faint giggle erupted from Carys. His heart lightened at the sweet sound. He had never heard her laugh and almost told her that was enough of a gift, but didn't want to offend the prickly witch.
"You could ask for a day off." She played with the cloth hand of her doll. "Have a bit of a lark. That's what Gil would suggest."
Her voice faded as she spoke of Gil, but her intriguing offer captured most of Aidan's attention. "A day off? Perhaps we could play chess. That seems the safest notion of a lark in the Curselands."
Her face twisted, resembling a gargoyle. He worried that the idea repulsed her, but she shook her head in a slow, apologetic way. "I'm playing the game with Gil. I... I shan't start over. That would be like admitting that he will never return. How about a game of backgammon?"
He frowned. "What do you mean about Gil never returning?"
She turned to set her doll down with the others. "I don't know. He was on a mission for my brother. He only needed to steal some mystical item from Curselord Kieran. But it's been so long and there's been no word..."
Gil was resourceful. If it hadn't been for Carys' agitated rearranging of dolls, Aidan wouldn't have worried. "Is this Curselord particularly dangerous?"
She turned, holding another demonic doll. The black button eyes matched Carys' dead eyes. "He has fought my brother over scraps of lands for years. Kieran once held Ghost Tower before Meical wrested it from him. It's said that you can still hear the howls of his victim in the halls."
A faint howl emphasized her point.
She squeezed the doll. "Five years ago, my brother liberated Ghost Tower and its denizens."
Aidan scoffed.
She frowned, and the doll's limbs twitched. "He is far worse than my brother. Kieran's people happily traded their allegiance to Meical. My brother offered safety in exchange for service. Kieran enslaved, experimented, and sacrificed."
He rolled his eyes, unwilling to give Meical any credit.
With an absent expression, she rubbed the doll. "Kieran was forced to retreat to the Cinder Mountains. He still has adherents and slaves. My brother could defeat him, but it would take a bloody war and much loss. My brother and Kieran loathe each other, but neither will provoke open conflict."
He folded his arms. "And your brother didn't think sending Gil on a larceny lark might provoke conflict?"
"Gil is quite skilled at slipping in and out of sticky situations." Her forehead creased. "I can't imagine why this time would be different."
He could imagine. "How is your brother planning to get Gil back?"
She flinched. "What can he do? If he makes an open move on Cinder Mountains, Kieran would consider that a declaration of war. Meical would lose precious resources that he needs to attack the Starlands. And it would raise doubts among his allies that Meical only intends your land.."
"So?" He blinked. "Meical shouldn't leave one of his own in enemy hands. Conan wouldn't!"
That was the wrong thing to say. Carys narrowed her eyes. "I don't see your brother diving into the Curselands to rescue you."
Fury burned his chest. "Your curse is the only thing that keeps Conan from trying. But your brother is a fool. Gil has intelligence on your brother's base, information that could easily aid Kieran!"
"You must believe Meical is lacking." She clutched the doll so tightly that the fabric tore. "Bradon asked Mistress Claudia for a death curse to send after Gil. Bradon never as much as sneezes without my brother's implicit permission."
Rage choked Aidan. He opened his mouth to scream at the heartless witch, then saw her expression.
Tears dripped down her marble face. His arms wrapped around her before he could stop himself. She stiffened, but didn't push him off. Her shaky, suppressed sobs stung his heart.
Carys stared past him when he finally pulled away. He feared that no one ever comforted her.
He tapped his foot. "Could your brother be prevailed upon to spare Gil?"
She shook her head, hair hiding her tear-stained face. "Gil is only spared by the enchanted wards around Cinder Fortress, the same thing sparing Kieran from a death curse."
His insides curdled at the thought of the best person in the Curselands dying for Meical's cause. "We should go to the Cinder Mountains to save Gil. Why not? You've great Curse Magic and I—"
"Can make carrots."
"I've Star Magic." Aidan smiled. "Star Magic and Curse Magic are supposed to have forged the Doomblade—imagine what we could accomplish."
"The sword that dispatched Curse Mages?" Carys glowered. "Didn't it take Sacrifice Magic to forge the Doomblade? Do you want to use Sacrifice Magic?"
"Of course not." He huffed. "But we could still do it. We—"
"This isn't a heroic saga!" She threw her doll at the tapestry of the Valiant Prince.
"Haven't you learned that life doesn't work that way?
When you saved your princess, you damned yourself.
Do you know what is littered at the bottom of the Cinder Mountains?
Skulls. All from the unfortunates that he sacrificed.
You've seen the face of Curse Warrior Nyx?
The ruined half will remain in perpetual pain, all because of Kieran.
And he went easy on her because he had affectionate memories of her.
What do you think he'll do to the sister of Meical and the son of a Star Champion? "
"It shall be perilous, but not impossible. We can at least try. If you can't rescue Gil, how do you expect to conquer the Starlands?" He grinned as something occurred to him. "We have Spiky on our side. How can we lose?"
Carys' mouth dropped open. "Blood Dragon! You're serious, aren't you? What are you thinking? If something happened to me, if something happened to you... then what of your princess?"
His hands clenched. He shouldn't forget that his fate was tangled up with Bella's. But he refused to back down. "We can do this, Carys. I know you want to save Gil."
She sank down on a chair next to the chessboard. "I don't understand. Why take such a risk for Gil? All he has ever done is give you a few books."
"I wish you could understand," he said, sadness searing inside. "Sometimes it's not about what someone can do for you. Sometimes it's just the fact that it's them."
He didn't know if she understood. But she stopped arguing. That was something.
She toyed with a loose thread on her sleeve. "So, what is your plan? Are the two of us to siege the fortress and join the skulls at the bottom?"
He turned to the chessboard. "Death curses can't be sent into the fortress. But what about when you are inside?"
"Kieran is a coward," she said in disgust. "He maintains a spell that stops death curses in most of his fortress. Most Curselords invoke similar spells. Not Meical. He's no coward."
He kept his opinion about Meical to himself. "That might make things easier. Can Kieran use a death curse?"
"Theoretically, no." Her face twisted. "My brother has learned there are rooms in the fortress that are immune to the wards. And killing can still happen as long as it isn't magical."
He nodded. "Is there a way to sneak in?"
"Don't you think Meical would know if there was?" She brushed her hands on the chess set. "After losing Ghost Tower, Kieran takes terrible precautions. He only even lets people into the Cinder Fortress at..."
A contemplative look came over her face as she trailed off, then shook her head as if dismissing the notion.
Aidan didn't dismiss it. "At?"
"Did you ever hear of a hell ball?"